


Beyond the Shore

by mc1303



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, M/M, mermaid zim au, mermaid!zim au, merzim, merzim au, zim saves dib from drowning. twice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 22:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28625025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mc1303/pseuds/mc1303
Summary: Dib meets a mermaid when he's young and again years later, after he's almost convinced it must have been a dream. Mermaid!Zim AU - not beta-read
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 59





	Beyond the Shore

**Author's Note:**

> Re-inspired by shandzii’s mermaid zim au (find them on tumblr, it’s a treat) I decided to finally write the fic that was meant to be paired with this drawing (which I had to screenshot off my Instagram to find it again): https://curiousdibandbeyond.tumblr.com/post/639697564663496704/
> 
> Enjoy!

The car took a sharp left and Gaz slid in her seat. The seatbelt caught her before she could hit the suitcases sat between her and Dib. The suitcases pressed Dib against the door and he groaned, shoving them back into place until the car leveled out again. Gaz kept playing on her Game Slave, seemingly impervious to the hectic roadway, and any effects of car sickness that Dib was experiencing. He should have sat in the front. But the front of the car meant possibly engaging in an endless conversation of science with his father, and not the science Dib was interested in—past astronomy—so Professor Membrane was enraptured by a work conversation instead.

Dib had started to tune it out early into the drive. He was more preoccupied with the passing landscaping as he listened to his podcasts, anyway. They’d been driving for over five hours now towards the beach. The three of them hadn’t been back to the house in years, but Professor Membrane’s current research on immortality had him fixated on jellyfish. Dib wasn’t entirely sure that jellyfish were in the area, but he also had no way of knowing that they weren’t. He didn’t care, either way. He got to swim in the ocean for a whole week plus the weekends.

Dib’s gaze drifted to the cliffside. The road railing was blocking his full view of the waves but he could see that the sea was relatively calm today. They’d be at the house soon, and he could wade into the water in no time if he changed fast enough. Dib glanced down, ahead of the car, to the final turn up ahead. As the car took a mild curve he could see it better. The house sitting on the beach with the stairs leading down and the dock that stretched out to the ocean not far off from the main area of private beach. On the other side, closer to them as they drove up to it, was the rockier shore of the cliffs. A color stood out to his eyes and he squinted. Membrane slowed the car down a little on the curve and Dib glanced away quickly to see some rocks had fallen on the road and then back again to the rocks.

Was that… pink? Something pink was on the rocks. Dib whipped around to his backpack as his father started to navigate the rocks, occasionally rocking the car up and down as if over speed bumps as he drove slowly over the smaller pieces. Dib jolted in his seat, holding the binoculars up to see better.

On the rocks, just off shore, where the water could still surround the rock peeking over the waves, was something pink and green. A reddish pink that stood out against all the blue, green, and grey surrounding it. Then the pink bent upward out of the water and created a splash. Dib gasped. The car jolted again over a larger rock and his head went forward into the window. The binoculars slammed against his face and were sandwiched a moment between the glass and himself.

“Ow!”

“Sorry, son!”

Dib rubbed at his sore eyes. He checked his glasses hadn’t busted and tried to return to the rock he was spying on but the cliff face blocked his view. He was forced to wait until they took this last inner turn that led up to the last turn towards the downgrade that led to the house. Dib sat back in his seat, his mind starting to race.

Had he seen what he thought he saw? Was that a mermaid? Dib had to regulate his breathing. His heart was starting to race with the anticipation. he couldn’t see the rocks from the cliff in the final turns—they were too close to the cliff; blocked by it from his angle on the road—but he could walk along the shore to the location. He stuffed his binoculars back into his bag and grabbed his swimming trunks pre-emptively. The car took the last two turns. His father ended the call and their downgrade started as they neared the beach house.

They couldn’t stop the car fast enough.

“Remember kids, back by dinner! We all need a good nights sleep!”

“We’re not helping you, why do we need to get a good sleep?” Gaz asks, saving her game.

“Because it’s healthy, of course!” Membrane answers proudly. He stopped the car and Dib practically bolted, grabbing his bags and racing to the front of the house. “Careful you don’t slip, son! I haven’t set up the lab yet!”

“Yeah!” Dib called back.

He slapped his hand over the scanner and the doors unlocked, opening slowly in front of him. Too slowly. He had to change and book it as fast as possible. He made it to his room, changed into his trunks, and was out the back door faster than Gaz or Membrane could make it into the house. He kicked off his shoes before he was off the back deck. He forgoes a towel in favor of just sitting out on the deck until he was dry when he got back.

He raced towards the rocks. He knew exactly where the spot was. He had spent plenty of days hunting for clams in the area. He reached the edge of the sand, where the rocks started to overtake the landscape and he had to selectively step from rock to rock. He came up to the outcropping where the large rock was still sitting surrounded by the water. The waves had started to get rougher, but not by enough that Dib was very concerned, and he started to wade into the water a little. The sand was laden between the rocks. The surfaces of the rocks were slippery, forcing him to step between them.

Dib looked around at the water. The waves were pulling at his ankles. He couldn’t see definition of anything under the water. The dark color and the motions of the waves obscuring his vision was he tried to step further to get a better look around the rock. 

It wasn’t there. Nothing was sticking out to his eyes. He looked around at the landscaping, hoping to catch sight of that same pink and green on the rocks or sand. Nothing. Dib tried to catch his breath as he swiveled from rock to rock.

“Hello?”

He only heard the waves responding as they crashed among the rocks and cliffside. Dib huffed, feeling his gut starting to drop.

“No… c’mon… hello! I saw you! I won’t hurt you, I promise!” Dib shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. Nothing in response. “I just want to say hel—OH!”

Dib’s arms flailed at his sides as he tried to regain his balance. His foot slipped off the rock, down into the waters. He had waded up to his knees. A wave hit him, knocking his other foot off the rock surface. He threw his hand back, trying to grasp a rock surface that could hold his weight only for his fingers to slip off the surface of the rock as the current pulled him out. Dib kicked, finding nothing under his feet but water.

_Focus. Focus. Paddle._

Dib pivoted his body towards the shore, kicking with as much force as he could. Another wave came up behind him, pushing him under.

~*~

Zim sighed, watching the bubbles rise to the surface of the water. The waves were getting more and more harried as the day wore on. He’d already spent most of his day just rising to the surface, he didn’t feel like fighting the current and then finding his way back. He would wait it out. He caught movement near the shoreline and turned his head. Feet were delicately moving along the rocks.

A land dweller was along his rocks? His sunbathing spot? Zim glowered at the pair of feet as they navigated the water, slowly moving further out from the cliff. Since when was that beach house actually used? It had been empty for so long—surely it had been abandoned. Zim had been sure of it. He swished his tail and antennae, the fins on his antennae sweeping up sand as he lounged back on his rock.

It wouldn’t matter. Humans were only marginally good swimmers most of the time. Zim hummed, watching the feet, hearing the mumbled words that the human was spouting out to see. They were loud. Almost as if they were shouting something specific. Zim furrowed his brow and pushed off from the rock. When he started to near the surface, his antennae were the first to catch the current and he slowed down. From where he was floating he could see the feet clearer. One bad slip on the rocks, a body falling into the water, a hand grappling for a hold and being torn away by the waters.

Zim chuckled, watching the young boy flail for a moment before pivoting back towards the shoreline. Zim gave a tsk.

“Stupid human…” he mumbled. He swam up to the surface of the waves, his head popping up over the surface. He shook his head, his antennae’s fins dispersing water around him in droplets. He could hear the boy breathing heavily from this far away already.

Pathetic humans couldn’t even breath underwater for a second. What was one more premature death? Zim watched him. The boy was running out of energy pretty fast. He was close to the shore, but Zim doubted he would make it. He waded closer to him, ducking under the waves when they would pass over him. They’d bring the boy under before he could see them. Oddly, it seemed he was more concerned about keeping those glasses on his face.

“Damn… mermaid…. Just wanted to see,” he whined. Zim smirked.

“Heh.”

Dib whipped around with a scream and flailing limbs. Zim backed up with a powerful push of his tail, eyes wide. Dib paused, huffing and looking Zim over.

“Oh! _Oh!_ You’re real!” he said giddily. His head almost dipped below the water and Zim swam up, holding him up by his arms.

“Of course, I’m real, you imbecile!” Zim shouts. “What kind of stupid question is that?!”

“And you speak English?!” Dib asked, his smile widened to a stupid length. He reached a hand around to try and touch Zim’s shoulder. Zim turned him around harshly, using his tail to propel them forward. “Hey, wait—”

“I don’t know what this Inn-glesh is,” Zim says. “And I have no interest in it.”

“It’s a language. Don’t you know what it is if you speak it?” Dib asks. He took the moment of respite form getting pounded by the waves to rest.

“No, pathetic human! It doesn’t matter! Your kind will fall to my Empire!”

“Your Empire? There’s a whole empire of mermaids under there somewhere?” Dib asked, excitement lacing his words. Zim turned him a moment to look at his starry eyes with confusion. He turned him back around with an annoyed sigh.

“Why do you sound so excited about that?!” Zim asks, pausing his swimming.

“There’s a whole civilization—”

“That will wipe out your _pathetic_ excuse of coastal cities! You can’t even breathe underwater! You’re inferior!”

“…By that logic, since you can’t breathe normal air, doesn’t that make your kind inferior for land?” Dib asks. Zim stared at him a moment. He punched him in the side, his fist moving faster in the water than Dib would have thought it would. “OW!!”

“Don’t insult me again.”

Dib knocked his head back against Zim’s jaw. “Don’t insult me!”

“GAH!”

Zim growled, shoving Dib away in the water. Dib took a second to re-convene and stop flailing before he started to paddle. Zim watched him a moment before he sighed. The idiot couldn’t even paddle correctly. Zim grabbed him by his shoulders, his claws digging into Dib’s skin.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow! Wait! Wait! Don’t eat me!” Dib shouted. Zim growled again and started to swim towards shore. He pushed through the water with his tail, lifting their bodies out of the water and flung Dib towards the sand. “Aaaaaaah!!”

Zim watched him arc out of the water and through the air into the sand dunes. Dib was slack against the dune for a moment. Zim waited, tilting his head to the side, until he saw Dib stir and sit up. Then vomit onto the sand and collapse back onto his back.

“Ugh…” Zim slipped back below the water.

~*~

Dib’s head ached. His body ached. His entire being ached. Dib groaned, rolling over. He cracked open his eyes, spying the crack in the glasses before he registered that it was dark out. He pushed himself off the sand into a sitting position. The air was the perfect warmth that made it easy to fall back asleep, but something told him he should be back at the house. It was probably past dinner at this point.

Dib tried to stand, and the soreness spread through his body. He stumbled, missing his footing in the sand, and stumbled forward. He rubbed at his sore muscles as he trudged back to the house. His recollection was fuzzy. Falling into the water was what he remembered the most. And then, somehow, he landed on the beach. Had he swam to shore and passed out? His head was killing him. 

Dib trudged up the steps to the back deck, kicking his shoes away as he made his way inside and slammed the door. Gaz looked up from her spot on the couch.

“Where have you been?”

“…Swimming.”

“Why do you look like hell?”

“Where’s dad?”

“Basement lab.”

“Ok, great, so I went to look for a mermaid—”

“And I don’t care,” Gaz says, turning back to her game. Dib deflated a little and sighed.

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure I actually saw one or if I had some sort of near-death fever dream. I almost drowned. Woke up on the beach,” Dib says. Gaz paused her game and tilted her head in his direction again. Dib didn’t wait for her to ask. “I’m fine. My head just hurts.”

“Get the medi-bot to check you out,” Gaz says, returning to the game. Dib nodded, despite her inability to see him, and snatched a scone from the counter on his way by.

The medi-bot was stored in the hall closet. Dib wrenched the door open and it whirred to life. It followed him back onto the back deck, beeping at him to stop for his scan. Dib halted at the banister, looking over the railing at the water. It was calm again and Dib couldn’t help but feel a little mocked by it. The medi-bot gave his body a scan. It took a moment; but it dispensed some pills and a glass of water from the chest cavity. Dib sighed and took them.

He finished off his scone, slipping his legs through the railing to hang them as he sat down to stare at the sea.

~*~

Humans were confusing. Most were idiots—that was a shared consensus among most of the merfolk in the Empire. The Tallest made sure to emphasize this. Zim was largely inclined to agree. The species hadn’t done much to get on their good sides—though, by the boy’s reaction the day before Zim pondered if they remembered the Empire existed at all. He’d have to investigate that for his Empire some day soon. Presently, Zim watched Gir swim in circles around him. 

“Mastah!! I’m freeeeee!!” Gir cheered, his fins moving rapidly to propel him faster and faster. He was close to making a small water tornado.

“I held you for only a while, Gir, you weren’t a prisoner,” Zim groaned, rubbing at his temples.

“Freeeeeeee!”

Zim groaned again, swimming up and away from Gir. The dumb SIR hadn’t been able to come with Zim to the surface area of the ocean in years largely because of his lack of patience. The difference in pressures required slow ascension. Gir never grasped the concept.

Zim peeked his head over the surface of the water, ignoring Gir’s shouting as it muddled through the water. The fin tips of his antennae stayed below the surface, just in case Gir started to torpedo towards him. On the beach he could see Dib and another human, a female, lounging on the beach. Their attention was away from him towards the dock where a third human, a much taller one, was fishing. Zim sighed heavily. He’d have to watch that Gir didn’t go near the dock. Luckily, he’d been good about staying close to Zim so far.

Dib had been coming near the water for days, but never stepping into the water himself. The female never got more than a few feet away from the water line. Zim contemplated if she even knew how to swim. As for the taller human—he was inclined to believe it must be a parent unit—had hardly interacted with the two children the past few days. Zim had seen him catch a jellyfish two days prior and he had disappeared into the house again until that morning.

Zim’s antennae twitched at the sound of Gir chasing… something. Zim wasn’t concerned about it. Many things were attracted to Gir’s silvery scales. Most fish were too stupid to keep their distance. Zim lowered himself deeper when Dib’s gaze drifted in his direction. The last thing he wanted was for Dib to see him. He had a hard enough time coming to terms that he had saved the human rather than let him drown in the first place. On top of not informing his Tallest. And returning. Again.

Zim blew bubbles out before dropping below the water. Gir was chasing some poor fish around the small reef to his left. The house was on his right at the moment. He could see the glint of the fishing lure from here. Gir had learned the hard way, and one “lost” boat later, to avoid the odd glinting lights. Zim peeked over the water again, the curiosity overpowering his willpower to keep below the surface. Dib’s attention was set firmly on making a sculpture with the sand. Zim recognized it was a reef. It was still largely in the making but the general shapes and what detail he had sculpted out told him that was the likely result.

Zim ducked down and swam closer to the shoreline. He reached close to the surface an flicked one antennae up, the top of the fin breaching the water. He could hear Dib’s voice over the waves.

“—and they’ve been around since before dinosaurs. They’ve evolved since then, but jellyfish are some of the oldest species in the world—”

“I really don’t care.”

“…Did you know they don’t have brains?” Dib asks.

“…Go on,” Gaz prompted.

_Wait, they didn’t?_ Zim wondered.

“Or hearts! But some have eyes. Sometimes. Most don’t. They’re mostly stomach, actually.”

Zim gave a ‘huh’—accompanied by bubbles—at the information. How had he never observed any of that? Was that in the libraries back in the Empire? He’d swam with jellyfish for years and hadn’t bothered to learn more than their behavioral patterns.

“The one dad is trying to catch is called… um… tur… turrito… hold on,” Dib mumbled. Zim poked his head out of the water enough to see him scrunch his face up in concentration. “…Turritopsis…. Nutricula. Yeah, that’s it. Turritopsis nutricula. That’s the one that’s theoretically immortal.”

“Why?” Gaz asks. She shimmied down her towel to set her foot against Dib’s sculpture, digging her toes into the base. Dib sighed, watching her.

“When it’s threatened it goes into cellular transdifferentiation—”

“That’s not a real word!”

“It is, look it up! It’s a word! Their cells become new again, they’re functionally immortal!” Dib says excitedly. “That is _literally_ a built-in fountain of youth!”

“That’s what Dad’s trying to do? Make a fountain of youth out of cells? Why not stem cells?”

“It’s less controversial. He gets funding easier this way.”

Zim dipped below the surface, holding his hand out to stare at it. The process sounded a lot like how Irkens were able to age. The Controllers had perfected the technique so long ago Zim hadn’t even been alive. He doubted the current Tallest had been hatched when it was implemented in the genes of the Empire. Perhaps this family unit wasn’t so useless after all, if they were so close to cracking the same functions for their bodies. The female gave off a rather off-putting vibe, in his opinion. The young boy, however, could be useful. Zim contemplated the parental unit for only a second before he decided against it. That one was far bigger than he was, and he wasn’t mentally prepared for a fight at the moment.

Zim hummed. “Gir!”

Gir stopped chasing the fish immediately, turning to him. “Mastah?”

“We’re heading back. I’m late on training as it is. The Commanders won’t take lightly to my absence again. We leave now and I’ll get back in time,” Zim says. Gir swam towards him like a torpedo right into his arms. “OOF!”

“Let’s gooooooo!”

Zim sighed, starting towards the trench.

~*~

Dib kicked his legs between the railings. Eight years he hadn’t been at the beach house. Countless other trips to nearby beaches and he’d come no closer to tracking any mermaid. He rested his forehead on the banister. Had it been a dream? Had it? Part of him didn’t want to accept it. He heard Gaz open the door and walk towards him.

“Hey. You gonna mope here all day? I just finished my room.”

“I’m not moping. I’m just relaxing.”

“Uh-huh. First big trip to the house and you’re moping,” Gaz says, flicking her sunglasses over her eyes. “Thought you would’ve liked the drive here.”

“Mmm…” Dib pouted. Getting a car for his sixteenth was a nice surprise. And a nice way to get out of the house whenever he wanted. He could go cryptid hunting whenever he wanted and his father couldn’t say no. Dib had a car. The impromptu trip out to the beach house was his idea of a celebration.

Gaz needn’t know that Dib had wanted to try finding the mermaid again. Really, it couldn’t be that hard to find a green and pink mermaid. He shoved off the wood of the deck, brushing the dirt off his trunks.

“I’m going for a swim, ok?”

“Don’t die.”

“I’ll try.”

Dib slid down the railing to the sand, hopping off and making his way to the dock. It was still stable, based on when he had checked it yesterday, and the beach was clear. He set his glasses down at the edge of the dock. Dib slapped his cheeks a little and took a few steps back. He could see the waves weren’t calm today, but they weren’t as if a storm were brewing. It was nothing he couldn’t handle. Dib took a running start and leapt into the water.

The cold shock was what he expected. Dib broke back over the water with a content sigh. The ocean had a way of just feeling refreshing. Dib laid on his back, letting the waves rock him up and down, back and forth. He sighed, kicking his legs idly to push himself further from the dock. Dib couldn’t hear much under the water. He rather liked that it muffled all the noise around him.

Dib drifted for some time, letting the water guide his body, before he felt something brushing up against his back. It was soft and tingly. Probably seaweed, he reasoned. That didn’t stop the inherent reaction of _hell no_ from hitting his brain first, and Dib jerked back up to the wading position. He looked around, spotting the top of a fin disappear below the surface of the water and he froze.

He couldn’t remember if sharks frequented the water. The thought was immediately dashed as he realized the fin had looked _nothing_ like a shark’s fin. It had been black and…

Dib gaped, spinning to try and find the fin again. Pink. It had been pink! He stopped spinning, his brain finally calming down long enough that he realized, with a pit to his stomach, that he was much further than he thought he was. The shoreline was thinner on the horizon. Dib took a moment to really confirm that this was happening and started to paddle sideways. He didn’t care how far up the shoreline he ended up, he just needed to get to the shore before he exhausted himself.

Swim parallel. Always swim parallel. 

Dib repeated the mantra as he tried to reach the land. He was so far out—had he dozed while he floated along the waves?—he was losing his energy faster than he could handle. His muscles were starting to burn with every kick and wave of his arms. He started gasping, a wave hitting him just as he took a big gasp, forcing him to cough instead. Dib stopped paddling, trying to wade in the water. Soon, his limbs started to give out on him.

Surely his body should have held out longer than this. He knew he was lithe, but he hadn’t thought he was this bad in his endurance levels. If he lived, he was getting that gym membership. Dib almost laughed at the thought. It was a lie and he knew it. He was going to gorge on every desert he could buy.

If he survived, his brain graciously reminded him. He was starting to sink. Dib tried to paddle one last time, as hard as he could, but his limbs felt like lead. His head dipped below the water’s surface. His instinct was to open his mouth. He knew it was a mistake before he even registered that he had done it. He felt something wrap around his waist. The panic set in far before the logic that it was arms. The water around went from swirling from his sinking body to rushing past him.

He had enough time to register that his face was breaking the top of the water’s surface. The pair of arms lifted his shoulders. He wasn’t sure what particularly happened. His head was breaking the surface of the water and then he was being flipped out and onto his back on the dock. The water splashed at the dock and he heard something landing its weight on the wood.

Dib gasped for air, turning over to cough out whatever seawater was left in his lungs, once he’d gotten the air back in his lungs. He turned over quickly, the revelation of what happened shooting adrenaline through his veins. He was on his side and expected to see nothing. Instead, brilliant, red-tinted magenta eyes stared back at him. The scale-esque green skin was still wet.

Zim rested his arms up on the dock, keeping most of his tail in the water. The fins at his elbows spread out in a stretch, drenching the wood further in water. Dib wiped the water down his face, smiling like an absolute idiot.

“I knew it! I knew I saw you that day!”

“And your idea of proving that to yourself was to… almost drown?” Zim asks.

“No, I wasn’t planning on drowning—” 

“Could have fooled _me_ , what with all that flailing.”

“Hey, I was getting exhausted and I got sucked into a riptide—” Zim smirked, his razor teeth catching Dib off guard enough that he shut his mouth and stared.

“How someone so tall can be so stupid…. I wonder.” 

Dib gaped, blushing in embarrassment. “W-well, how someone can so—so cute and so brash is beyond _me_ —UH. WAIT. U-UH—I MEAN—!” 

Zim blinked at him. He stared at him a long moment. Dib’s face got redder. Zim looked him over and started to smirk devilishly.

“UHHHHHHH—” Dib scrambled up to sit on his knees. “I didn’t mean that! I didn’t say that!”

“Yes, you did!” Zim shouted at him, his tail breaking the water a moment to splash it. “HA!”

“Shut up! I didn’t say that, I did not say it,” Dib shouted back. 

Zim suddenly lifted himself up onto the dock, resting on what would have been a hip, the bottom of his tail still resting in the waves. Dib couldn’t help but look at the tail. It was a strangely deep pink, fading into the green at Zim’s torso as the skin shifted into proper scales. _And the fins._ The fins were feathery like the sea dragon seahorse. They looked almost delicate. The pink was nearly translucent. The spines that held the fins to his body were stark black. Dib hadn’t expected the high contrast, but it worked. And the gills were on his sides. It couldn’t have been comfortable to lie down anywhere, he would think, but then again who could say that mermaids felt pain the same way. The largest fin, set on the back of Zim’s tail, was huge. The webbing between the spines were just as translucent as the fins. They looked almost like feathers. Dib tentatively reached a hand out to stroke it—just to feel the texture.

Zim’s eyes shot to look at his hand and he grabbed Dib’s wrist. Dib took a very prominent note of the claws he could feel and froze. He looked back up at Zim’s eyes.

“You are not allowed to _touch_.”

“…okay…”

Zim let his wrist go with a huff. His tail splashed in the waves. He couldn’t properly sit with the back fin. The side fins collapsed perfectly fine against his tail, but the back was far too rigid to allow it without the aid of water keeping it buoyant.

“And I am _not_ cute! I am a fearsome eater of man, you _stupid_ land maiden—”

“What the hell is a land maiden?”

“And _how dare_ you ever _insinuate—_ ”

“I can’t tell if you’re mad or embarrassed, is that supposed to be a blush?” 

“ _STOP INTERRUPTING OR I’LL EAT YOUR LIVER!!_ ” Zim snarled, slamming his palm down on the deck. The wooden plank cracked and bent, the nails ripping right from the wood. The remains fell into the water below. Dib looked at the damage. Bits of plank were still stuck to the support beams.

“Right,” he squeaked.

Zim looked over the damage. He brushed his palms together to get the bits of wood off. He lounged out on the deck, resting his chin on his hand. Dib pulled his knees up, reaching around for his glasses. He spotted them near Zim’s elbow.

“Um…. Can I?” he pointed to them. Zim looked down at the pair and picked them up between his claws. He held them up, rolling on his stomach. He moved the glasses around in his fingers, studying them.

“What are these?” he asks.

“My glasses. So I can see,” Dib says. He made a grab for the glasses and Zim held them out of reach. “I need those.”

Zim hummed and smirked at him. He twirled the glasses in his fingers, daring Dib to make a grab for them. Dib debated it a moment. Dying by mermaid wasn’t the worst death in the world. He would at least have died encountering something he admired. Dib went for it and Zim leaned up out of his reach. Dib paused, glaring at him. Zim shot him another tooth-filled smirk.

“Give it back,” Dib demanded. Zim thought about it. One thought in particular was taking up the forefront of his mind.

“Give me your name and I’ll give them back,” Zim offers. Dib sat back, regarding him suspiciously. 

“Give me your name and I’ll give you mine.”

“Hmmm… my name for your name for your glasses.”

“That’s right.”

Zim tapped his free hand’s claws on the wood. He gave a breathy laugh. “Zim.”

Zim tossed the glasses Dib’s way. Dib caught them—barely catching them before they bounced off his palm and into the ocean—and slipped them back on. He ran his hand through his hair, shaking out the water.

“Well, it’s amazing to meet you, Zim. How long can you stay out of the water?” Dib asks. Zim paused a second before he pushed himself back to the end of the dock and draped the lower half of his tail into the water, resting on his stomach.

“Longer now.”

Dib crawled up beside him, swinging his legs over the edge of the dock. He sat on his hands if only to keep himself from trying to touch the fins again.

“I’m Dib.”


End file.
